If there is one word to describe the upcoming 2016 Nanaimo Boat Show it’s ‘more.’
“More. A lot more,” said Odai Sirri, event organizer and director of operations for Waterfront Holdings.
This year, the Nanaimo Boat Show will take place from March 31 to April 3 at the Waterfront Suites and Marina located on Stewart Avenue. The four-day event will feature a range of marine vendors, plenty of boats for sale, a kids’ zone, marine safety educators, and music.
“We’ve made the tents bigger, we’ve added more family events, we’ve added live music,” Sirri said.
Exhibitors this year include Van Isle PowerBoat, Alpine Marine, Yacht Sales West, Arbutus Coast Yacht Sales, Thunderbird Marine, Raven Marine, Blackfish Marine, Lifetimer Boats, Vancouver Island Hovercraft and Alberni Outpost.
The Nanaimo Boat Show was originally organized by the Nanaimo Port Authority until 2011. After a few years without a boat show in the city, Sirri decided to pick up where the port authority left off and hosted his first Nanaimo Boat Show last year.
“The first year was the inaugural year to get the show back,” Sirri said. “We had to show the community, we had to show exhibitors, we had to show the industry that there was a demand for a boat show in Nanaimo.”
Due to last year’s popularity, Sirri said they decided to turn the three-day event into a four-day event.
“We learned a lot from that year and now we are applying those new changes,” Sirri said.
Today, the Nanaimo Boat Show is the only one of its size north of the Malahat, according to Sirri, who said last year they saw visitors come from as far north as Campbell River, as well as Vancouver and Victoria.
“This is the show that represents everything north of the Malahat,” he said. “Traditionally, this is a show where business deals get done, so a lot of buyers will come in and buy because there is a big market here.”
Sirri said last year’s boat show had an economic impact of $6 million for Nanaimo.
“There was a boat that was worth over a million-and-half that sold here. And that was one boat,” he said. “It’s not to say that every boat is a million-dollar boat. There is a boat for every budget.”
A portion of the proceeds from the Nanaimo Boat Show goes toward the Nanaimo Region John Howard Society, an organization that works with people in prison, community correctional programs, young offenders and those defined as being at risk for criminal involvement.
“They do some incredible work,” Sirri said.
For more information about the Nanaimo Boat Show, please visit www.nanaimoboatshow.com.